1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to facsimile machines and methods of feeding the cut sheets and, more particularly, to a facsimile machine which can effectively make a good use of a machine casing as the main frame of the machine as well as the installation zone of a recording-paper cassette removably attached onto one side of the machine casing as a cut-sheet stocking medium to realize the feeding and discharging of sheets (including original documents and received-signal recording cut sheets), thereby realizing the reduction of the whole installation space occupied by the facsimile machine, and also to a method of feeding the sheets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most prior art facsimile machines have so far used a rolled sheet (usually referred to as "rolled paper") as received-signal recording paper. Such a rolled paper, after cut into a predetermined length, tends to be subjected to a curling and thus it is highly difficult to file the cut sheet properly (poor filing property). Under such circumstances, there have been recently increased the number of such facsimile machines that employ the thermal transfer system or the electrophotographic system as a received-signal recording system and that use ordinary paper, i.e., cut sheets having an excellent filing property as received-signal recording paper.
FIG. 1 conceptionally shows a widely known structure of this type of facsimile machine using cut sheets as received-signal recording paper.
In such a facsimile machine as shown in FIG. 1, a machine casing 1 as the main frame of the facsimile machine is integrally provided at its upper side with an original-document base 2 which carries original document sheets OS thereon. Also removably mounted at one side of the machine casing 1 is a recording paper cassette 3 which contains cut sheets CS as the received-signal recording paper. Further mounted at the other side of the machine casing 1 are an original-document stacker 4 which receives and stacks the discharged (that is, read) original document sheets OS as well as a recording-paper stacker 5 which receives and stacks the discharged cut sheets CS (that is, having the received image recorded thereon).
Within the interior of the machine casing 1, a reading means 6 is provided between the original document base 2 and the original document stacker 4 for reading an image written on the original document sheet OS and a recording means 7 is provided between the recording paper cassette 3 and the recording-paper stacker 5 for recording the read image on the cut sheet CS.
In the operation of the facsimile machine, the original document sheets OS placed on the original document base 2 are introduced sequentially into the interior of the machine casing 1 by a suitable feeding means, subjected by the reading means 6 to reading operations of images written on the sheets OS, and then fed, received and stacked into the original document stacker 4 by a second suitable feeding means. The cut sheets CS within the recording-paper cassette 3, on the other hand, are sequentially introduced into the interior of the machine casing 1 by a third suitable feeding means, subjected by the recording means 7 to recording operations of the read images on the sheets CS, and then fed, received and stacked into the recorded paper stacker 5 by a fourth suitable feeding means. The cut sheets CS thus stacked in the recording paper stacker 5, since the cut sheets are less subjected to curling or the like, have an excellent filing property, as has been explained earlier. In FIG. 1, a modem and so on to be usually incorporated in a facsimile machine are not illustrated for abbreviation of explanation.
Such a facsimile machine, which uses cut sheets as received-signal recording paper, requires the recording paper cassette 3 to be attached thereto. Even when the arrangement of the known facsimile machine using a rolled sheet as received-signal recording paper as mentioned earlier is employed without any change, it has been common practice to mount at the other side of the machine casing 1 opposed to the cassette 3 such original document and recorded paper stackers 4 and 5 for receiving and stacking sheets discharged from the machine casing 1 as shown in FIG. 1. For this reason, when such a facsimile machine is installed, this has required not only an installation zone B occupied by the recording paper cassette 3 but also an installation zone C occupied by the original-document and recorded-paper stackers 4 and 5, in addition to a casing installation zone A occupied by the machine main frame casing 1, resulting in that the facsimile machine occupies a large total installation space corresponding to the sum of the zones A, B and C.